Churches Targeted In China’s Quest For Metal
IT seems that even the good Lord himself is powerless to stop thieves pilfering his many sacred homes across the land. According to the Independent, churches are increasingly being targeted by thieves eager to cash in on the current boom in scrap metal.
With demand for lead and copper increasing at a phenomenal rate, fuelled by China’s rapidly growing industry, one church a day across Britain is being robbed, with bells, lightning conductors and even entire roofs being nicked by ungodly criminals.
Ecclesiastical Insurance say they have received 500 claims, worth a total of £750,000, in the past 14 month alone, with many of these claims made for repeated thefts from the same churches.
Chris Pitt of Ecclesiastical says: “We’ve seen a marked worsening in the situation in the past year. These aren’t opportunists doing this. We had a three-tonne bell taken from outside a church. If they’ve stolen £2,000 worth of lead, that can have caused £50,000 worth of damage to the church.”
Inspector Stuart Edwards of South Yorkshire Police is equally concerned. Says he: “Between April 2006 and April 2007 we’ve had in the order of 20 attacks on churches.
“The crux of the matter is that thieves pay no heed to what type of premises it is. The problem with churches is that they’re often isolated so we don’t get people regularly reporting suspicious events to us. If we get a couple of prosecutions under our belts, it’ll act as a deterrent.”
Or maybe God is hoping to clean up on the insurance.
Posted: 18th, June 2007 | In: Money Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
